02 August,2016 08:33 AM IST | | AFP
The world's top table tennis player Ma Long has added a new performance-enhancing substance to his Rio training regime as he tries to overcome anxiety: booze
Beijing: The world's top table tennis player Ma Long has added a new performance-enhancing substance to his Rio training regime as he tries to overcome anxiety: booze.
Chinese TT player Ma Long
Ma has long dominated the world rankings, but failed to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics and finally won the world championship last year at his fifth attempt, raising questions about his mental resilience.
The 27-year-old lacks nothing when it comes to technical skills and is renowned for his scorching serve and deceptive spin. But his struggles with nerves under pressure have driven China's chief coach Liu Guoliang to focus on teaching his protege how to relax. "For Ma Long, two things are most important. One is that when the pressure gets very high, to make him go to a bar and drink some alcohol."
The other was to distract him with chit-chat, he added. Moderation in drinking was key, Liu said, but the goal was to get the obsessed player to "relax, because the demands he usually puts on himself are very strict and harsh".
